Which to use
“serve” and “server” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,566
- “serve” frequency rank
- #25,127
- “server” frequency rank
- 39693
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | serve | server |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Femme attachée au domaine qu’elle cultive moyennant redevance au seigneur qui en est le propriétaire. | Serveur, serveuse. |
Where the eye mixes serve and server
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: serve vs server
A purely visual mix-up. serve (\sɛʁv\) and server (\ˈsɝ.vɚ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “serve” sits inside “server”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39693, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
serve is recorded at frequency rank #14,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɛʁv\. server is at rank #25,127, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɝ.vɚ\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 39693, this pair ranks #246,092 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of serve vs server
Shared letters: ersv. Private to "serve": -. Private to "server": -.
"serve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "server" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "serve" and "server" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "serve" vs "server" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "serve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "server" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #246,092 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "serve" and "server" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "serval vs server". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #246,092 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.